The Cremerie de Paris

Grand Hotels of the World are edited from Paris Cremeries (Milk Stores at the Les Halles foodmarket) 1869 - 1970 Pop Up Expos since 2011 Cremerie de Paris is rooted in history ... Our place exists since 1370 . The childhood place of Louis XIV became a "La Poste" in 1671.

A bit of magic linked to centuries of history attracts some of the World's most famous Brands ... from Cremerie de Paris / VB.com, a historic place near the Louvre dedicated to ad events once an avant-garde

web cafe where was invented Phone Book of the World Telecom since 1671 A long Telecom History

1671 january 21 two young entrepreneurs Leon Pajot et Louis Rouillé bought the Hôtel de Villeroy (VB mansion) to start an avantgarde Telecom business: It's called "La Poste" and become the Royal French Postal Services for Louis XIV,

ancester of the French State owned PTT. Post coaches carried mail from our house to 900 Pajot & Rouillé post relais around Italy and France and to the postal centers of the Thurn & Taxis family located in Brussels and Francfort.

Their grand-son Louis Leon Pajot (1678 - 1754) and Anselm Franz von Thurn & Taxis (1681 - 1739) were key people in Europe's Postal system. Uncountable historic documents were transiting our house. When King Louis XIV had really important papers

Louis Leon Pajot had to come to Versailles in person to pick them up from the hand of the king ...

1717 White travelling to Paris the Russian Tsar Peter the Grand came to visit Pajot to admire his collection of scientific instruments. End of Two Telecom stories

1738 , may 14 Louis XV, suffered from jealousy. and withdrew the Pajot & Rouillé post liciense, but he did not have the power to take it from the Thurn & Taxis based outside France in Brussels and Francfort. Maximilian Karl von Thurn & Taxis (1802 - 1871) ,

1867 , july 1 the sate of Prussia nationalised the Thurn & Taxis Post, ancestor of the German PTT but 3 million German thalers had to be paid in compensation. Two, three of these thalers would 119 years later

come to Paris, rue des Halles ... Albert von Thurn & Taxis (1860 - 1952) transmits the stories of the families post adventures to his grandsons Johannes et Anselm. Our VB mansion was part of them. Albert knew them from his mother Helene in Baveria,

daughter-in-law of the last postmaster Maximilian Karl Thurn & Taxis. Albert's aunt Sissi of Austria (1837 - 1898) and his uncles Ludwig of Bavaria (1845 - 1886) and Paul Thurn & Taxis (1843 - 1879) were more fascinated by the legends around Louis XIV than by the ones around the postal service.

According to Albert, the grandfather of Johannes, King Ludwig II came to our VB mansion back in 1867 . At that time the construction of our rue des Halles wasn't finished. Too bad King Ludwig II did not take pictures, until now we never found any images of the construction, but maybe one day we will discover one in a Bavarian castle. He returned in 1874

(a month after the invention of the phone by Alexander Graham Bell) seeing the Cremerie functioning as a "Cremerie" (cheese store). It is possible that the magic of the Cremerie and the spirit of Paris contributed a little to the fairy tale palaces Neuschwanstein , Linderhof , Herrenchiemsee ? Ludwig II was named after

Louis XVI , godfather of his grandfather Ludwig I of Bavaria. Louis XVI was the great-great-grandson of Louis XIV.

1952 Johannes Thurn & Taxis inherited the Telecom fortune from his grandfather Albert. Like Albert he was very cultivated and he knew his family's history better than an encyclopedia. His stories would later create a link between the Telecom activities of the old Thurn & Taxis Postmasters and the not yet invented Phone Book of the World. Return of a Telecom story

1986 when travelling to Paris Johannes Thurn & Taxis (1926 - 1990) loved to come to the unconventional area of Châtelet les Halles. He enjoyed talking to young students in the cafes, the Maison Rouge (today Cremerie N°7 ),

Bistrot des Halles or the no longer existing Cafe Costes. One of them (now editor of this website) was captivated by the entrepreneurial spirit of the old Thurn & Taxis that carried mail with horses between their post relais and our house in Paris, unbeleivable postal stories,

that happened - centuries ago . The T&T story started in Cornello in the Italian alps with Francesco Tasso / Franz von Taxis (1459 - 1517) who set up a postal route to Brussels. Johannes's great-great-great-great-great-great-grand-father Anselm Franz von Thurn & Taxis (1681 - 1739)

used to go to the VB mansion opposite the cafe, on the other side of the street (today Cremerie N°1 ). No Thalys, no TGV no ICE trains, Anselm Franz was using horses. It was a 44 h trip in the summer and 55 h in the winter

with one or two nights sleep in between. Spirit of telecommunications had stayed in our walls and in the mind of the Thurn & Taxis family. Above pictures were taken in 1986 / 1987 one in the living room of the T&T Regensburg Castle, the other one in front of the just opened Cremerie de Paris N°2

The woman in the first picture that looks in her 50th, Aimée de Heeren was much older than anybody beleived. She would later become the link between Chanel and the not yet reopedened Cremerie N°1. The T&T stories were so crazy & funny

that they must have woken up the sleeping Telecom genes of our old old building. Thurn & Taxis had nobody as much interested in his never ending Telecom anecdotes ... Whenever there was some time conversation

went to the post legends. While his family's Postal Palaces in Brussels and Francfort had been destroyed the old Hôtel de Villeroy / VB mansion was still around, ... pratically unchanged. W alking around the VB mansion

Thurn & Taxis was fascinated to feel the spirit of the old postmasters. He was captivated the student also knew about the exact same place, but what he knew had nothing to do with Telecom his stories came from Russia (see above) ...

A few weeks later, summer 1986 , a small Boutique, once a milk store at the foodmarket, was for sale next to the old Postal Building (today Cremerie N°2 ). A cariatide of Empress Eugenie is above the facade. Thurn & Taxis pushed the student to open the store, not as a milk but as a phone store ...

"You should go into the business my family once started ... Telecom. Here is the equivalent of one thaler so you have someting left by the old Thurn & Taxis postmasters that will help you to start, get the place and you see with the energy of this spot

things will just happen and come to you." Well when you are 20 and you open a shop in Paris a lot of adventures are waiting ... Everything started with Sony answering machines and cellular home phones: IT A 550 or SPP 150.

Banned by the French PTT holding a monopoly over the market it was impossible to sell them in Paris.

1990 state owned PTT took us to court to close down the Boutique as the phones were not "agrée". Lawyer Laurent Salem saved us as there was no law prohibiting repair service. So we launched the fashion of bringing home to France these wonderful electronic miracles

when travelling to Asia or the US. Soon Paris Match talked about the Boutique which came to the ears of Lady Diana walking into our doors when visiting Paris. The beginning of a new Telecom adventure later resulting in the Phone Book of the World